EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
Xiulan's got Shen Hu whipped 
Too bad he's dead >_>
Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Location
- Nova Scotia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
well, he's definitely not wrong
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- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
Nope. Shen boy died in the underground defense. That happened after our descent into the darkness which happened after the first attack that killed Elder Zhou. Xiulan left between the first attack and our descent.
One of the she should be a he I think
- Location
- PA
Hahah! Even his abs know they are both to be hidden away!
[X] Inquire about the Pure World and Cloud Tribe History/Myths in general
EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
Insert Tally
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
- Location
- Melbourne, Australia
- Pronouns
- She/They
Just wanted to highlight this excellent phrase.
- Location
- Somewhere.
...no, it's just people throwing money at yrsillar, I think.
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
Commissions are paid for by people. So the reason we are getting so many Shen Hu interludes is because right after his death a bunch of people asked for these stories.
EternalObserver
eYe Gaze baCk
- Location
- The Void
It's me (and someone else) throwing money at Yrs. Don't think too much about it.
Okay, the ship was cute and all but this.
This is the real star of this side story.
- Location
- somewhere over there.
- Pronouns
- They/It
Continuing on with the "all our friends have villain backstories" theme, I guess this would be the tragic scene where the caustic, haughty noble found someone who genuinely cared about them, and began to open up and act less evil, only for their budding love interest to be stolen away, sending them further and faster down the dark path they'd almost avoided, angry at the world itself for taking their crush away.
Cecylene
Eternal Idea Engine
- Location
- Massachusetts
- Pronouns
- He/They
And then the person to give them the most heartfelt attention is the relentlessly ambitious one that has been driving them to become more aggressive, away from their old friends, and to pursue their own power to avoid being left behind.
Honestly my favorite part of Threads and Forge has been the possible-villain story perspective that one could take.
Turn 11: Arc 6-9
"You know, having met and spoken to your wife's people, I have to wonder, what is it like for you, living among them?" Ling Qi asked, following Ilsur into the well lit hall. The Cloud Tribes were known for being fairly patriarchal, there were no women khans as far as she knew. If even Gan Guangli was bothered by their proscriptions, then surely barbarians must chafe a great deal.
Ilsur did not answer her immediately as he led her, passing by several closed doors. "It is strange, having warmth at all times and unending resources. Their expectations are stranger still, but at least here, only that fussy lump of a sun shaman is bothered by my hunting. I am pleased enough to suffer some discomfort for the future of my tribe."
Ling Qi frowned. "I had gotten the impression that their opinions on the place of men and women were rather stronger."
"They are, in the south, where their citadels stand, and among those close to their gods," Ilsur replied with a shrug. "It is easy to say 'this is how all things must be' in the seat of power and comfort."
"Your wife is one who is close to their gods though," Ling Qi pointed out.
Ilsur gave a grunt of acknowledgement as they turned a corner. Ling Qi glimpsed a room through an open door, a warmly lit room hung with thick furs and trophy heads of animals both familiar and not. "Jaromila is different. Why do you think she is here among us?"
Ling Qi simply hummed in acknowledgement, it confirmed what she had suspected. Those members of the Alaniar assigned here were people who did not fit perfectly with their wider societies beliefs. "Still, I can hardly believe your people have gone along with this all smoothly."
"Access to much richer land and graze, and knowledge of rituals to propitiate the worst spirits goes a very long way," Ilsur replied
Her eyebrows rose. "What spirits do you speak of?"
He turned his head to look at her, a mirthless smile on his face. "Crone Winter terrifies the dark itself, but requires sacrifice. If you are not of her people, or fail to perform the correct rituals, she will instead take what she wishes."
Something about the way he said sacrifices sounded ominous. These people seemed so pleasant and civilized, but she supposed considering the girl she had met in the shrine, it made sense.
"It's the ritual of thing. A human deliberately destroying something they value in your name is like candy," Sixiang murmured. "It'll get through to almost anything, and the rush of it is real."
Ling Qi knew that, even in the Empire people poured out libations, burned offerings and sometimes even sacrificed animals, though that was rare in cities, outside of big festival things. Still, something else about what he had said bothered her.
"You make it sound like Crone Winter is active in the world, taking things herself. I had thought her a great spirit," Ling Qi said with a frown.
"Because she is," Ilsur's voice grew lower. "I have seen her vessel twice, once amongst the clouds at my fathers second wedding, and once in the harshest winter of my youth, when the tribe lost many children to the cold. It is a horrible thing, and I hope I do not see it again."
Ling Qi felt disquiet at Ilsur's words. The fear in them was real, yet could they be true? Having been in that shrine to the moon and the night, she was certain that the aspects were great spirits. What then had Ilsur seen? Something like Xin perhaps? An avatar of a greater spirit?
"I am sorry to bring up such distressing memories," Ling Qi acknowledged quietly. She supposed even barbarians weren't happy to lose their children. So Ling Qi elected to change the subject. "Do your people actually interact with the White Sky, or is it just a matter of these marriages?"
"We have joined their alliance. We are 'wanderers' as they put it," Ilsur said simply. "It is not so different, our yearly route is more defined, and we winter now at a Gord, and our warriors defend them from demons and hunt beasts that they cannot. It is strange, but not unlike defending a very large camp."
"And there are no problems with that?" Ling Qi asked dubiously, giving up so much autonomy had to bring trouble, both for the tribe and the men doing it.
"There is strife, and we leave interacting with the settled folk to the women while the men hunt and slay, it makes less trouble for everyone. It is not as if our women are not warriors as well. It is foolish to leave any person defenseless," Ilsur said, his voice dropping low at the end.
Ling Qi didn't reply at first, watching as the painted sky overhead began to darken, the hallway they were in was still beautiful, it's paneled and painted walls showing a landscape painted in the colors of twilight. "What is it they are trying to protect their men from? I haven't been able to get a straight answer."
"There are bodiless demons that may take a man's mind in the south," Ilsur said quietly. "They seem rare, but I gather this was not always so. Their possession makes even weak beasts into terrors. They may make men do terrible things in the dark of winter, even to their own kin. And it is said that the Crone does not take sacrifice idly, but to fuel her war with the malice that lies between the stars which births the demons."
"You mean of the stars, I presume," Ling Qi said.
"I do not. The stars are fickle and may be cruel or kind as they wish. It is the darkness between from which malice comes. I do not know if men who make violence are more easily possessed, though," Ilsur dismissed. "Regardless, it is said that when the tribes fought a great war against these demons and cast them out, the menfolk warriors of the new tribes betrayed the alliance, seeking to break the althing and make themselves kings. It is said this was the demons whispers, but-" Ilsur trailed off, offering a shrug.
Ling Qi understood his meaning. That didn't sound like something that would need a demons whispers to happen. Then again, even if her hunch was right… it didn't actually change the rational much.
"Let me ask you this, lowlander," Ilsur said, interrupting their thoughts. "Why go through this effort?"
"I simply think it would be better for less people to lose their lives," Ling Qi said quietly. The cieling overhead glittered with starlight, casting them both in shadow. At the end of the hall, she could feel the presence of Jaromila, and something greater, a nexus of cold that felt like a gnarled forest snowed under.
Ilsur let out a bark of laughter. "Hah, simple, but honest. I do not dislike that answer."
"If I may ask, how did your people meet each other? How did you meet your wife?" Ling Qi asked.
"They met us," Ilsur said simply. "Always we have had tales of the lands of Always Winter, but we thought them spirits not men."
"And that is why you shot me when I saved you, yes?" Jaromila said as they approached. She stood beside a thick door carved from beams of dark wood, it's surface covered in frost.
"I had already fallen, my legs broken, my wings lamed, if I was to die, I would prefer to be eaten by a beast, or slain in battle than lulled to final sleep by a hungry ice wraith," Ilsur said dryly.
Jaromila clicked her tongue and shook her head. "You are such a strange man Ilsur, though that too is charming."
"There is your answer, lowlander. She sought us out, and happened to take a liking to this fool," Ilsur said with a snort. "May your meeting go well."
Ling Qi lowered her head, murmuring a farewell as he turned on his heel, marching away from them. She glanced then to jaromila, who was watching him go with a bemused look.
The foreign woman smiled at her. "He is an odd man, far different than any man of the Alaniar. I am perhaps weak to exotic things."
"Is that really the only reason?" Ling Qi acted cautiously, not just speaking of Ilsur.
Jaromila hummed to herself. "No, but it will have to do for now. The Voice awaits."
Ling Qi nodded, and Jaromila turned away laying her hand on the rime crusted door. Silently it swung open. The room inside was pitch black, much like the shrine had been. The only light came from the faint glint of light from her own hair, reflecting endlessly off the icy formations hanging from the ceiling.
Stepping inside, she found herself treading on an uneven tangle of thick roots, and realized swiftly that the columns arrayed along the length of the room seemed to be living trees. Their canopies brushed up against the ceiling, leafless and stark, rustling with unseen movement. Peering closely at the bark, Ling Qi blinked in surprise as she realized that what seemed like tree bark seemed to actually be dark ore, patterned and textured like bark. It had even fooled her qi sense for a moment.
She followed Jaromila, picking over the tangle of roots burrowing into the iron floor. A dusting of snow fell on their heads, falling from the mist shrouded ceiling overhead. When the door swung shut silently behind them, she didn't look back or flinch. They were within the aura she had sensed outside the hall now, but still, Ling Qi did not see this Voice.
There were more trees lining the walls, sprouting leaves of copper and brass. At the end of the room was the largest tree, a thick trunk with bark of silver, whose roots spread across the shallow steps of the dais it grew upon. There was a powerful qi in the metallic wood, and Ling Qi considered that it was a sort of throne or portal, through which this Voice would manifest or step.
"Voice of the Far Foothills, I bring our guest before you," Jaromila said politely, lowering her head and curtseying.
Ling Qi brought her hands together and bowed. "Emissary Ling Qi offers her greetings to the honored Voice."
She expected someone to step out, or a disembodied voice. She did not expect the whole tree to groan and shift, metal bark writhing to life. It twisted and changed until something shaped vaguely like a woman stood before them. She was tall, taller than even Cai Shenhua had been, at more than three meters in height, her wiry bone white hair nearly brushed the misty ceiling, hanging down well past her shoulders and kept tame by a circlet of black iron and pale green wood, curled around one another. The woman's face was deeply lined and looked more like tree bark than skin. Her eyes were deeply sunken knotholes, gleaming with pale blue light within.
The woman wore a dress of fused vines and withered plant life, creating an unsettling rustling as her chest rose and fell. Her hands, curled at her sides, had too long fingers like skeletal branches, each tipped by long iron talons. The roots which grew all along the dais vanished beneath the leafy hem of her dress.
"You are welcomed," the old woman's voice was slow and very deliberate, and Ling Qi felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise under the woman's scrutiny.
Despite everything she was quite sure that this was a human woman. What's more if Ling Qi's senses were to be believed, she was in the fifth realm.
"I've told you there's not nearly as much difference as you think once you grow a little," Sixiang grumbled quietly.
"Emissary Lingchee is the representative of the unknown bloodline I have spoken of," Jaromila said. Ling Qi followed her lead in keeping her eyes down. "While I would not insult you by bringing matters temporal before your eyes O voice. She has an unusual tale of her godmother which I felt required your interpretation."
Ling Qi stilled as she felt the full weight of the woman's gaze fall upon her. "Yes, she claims life from ice. I would like to see this child through human eyes."
Ling Qi swallowed nervously, and gave Hanyi who had thus far been silent a nudge. She could only hope that this went well.
Ilsur did not answer her immediately as he led her, passing by several closed doors. "It is strange, having warmth at all times and unending resources. Their expectations are stranger still, but at least here, only that fussy lump of a sun shaman is bothered by my hunting. I am pleased enough to suffer some discomfort for the future of my tribe."
Ling Qi frowned. "I had gotten the impression that their opinions on the place of men and women were rather stronger."
"They are, in the south, where their citadels stand, and among those close to their gods," Ilsur replied with a shrug. "It is easy to say 'this is how all things must be' in the seat of power and comfort."
"Your wife is one who is close to their gods though," Ling Qi pointed out.
Ilsur gave a grunt of acknowledgement as they turned a corner. Ling Qi glimpsed a room through an open door, a warmly lit room hung with thick furs and trophy heads of animals both familiar and not. "Jaromila is different. Why do you think she is here among us?"
Ling Qi simply hummed in acknowledgement, it confirmed what she had suspected. Those members of the Alaniar assigned here were people who did not fit perfectly with their wider societies beliefs. "Still, I can hardly believe your people have gone along with this all smoothly."
"Access to much richer land and graze, and knowledge of rituals to propitiate the worst spirits goes a very long way," Ilsur replied
Her eyebrows rose. "What spirits do you speak of?"
He turned his head to look at her, a mirthless smile on his face. "Crone Winter terrifies the dark itself, but requires sacrifice. If you are not of her people, or fail to perform the correct rituals, she will instead take what she wishes."
Something about the way he said sacrifices sounded ominous. These people seemed so pleasant and civilized, but she supposed considering the girl she had met in the shrine, it made sense.
"It's the ritual of thing. A human deliberately destroying something they value in your name is like candy," Sixiang murmured. "It'll get through to almost anything, and the rush of it is real."
Ling Qi knew that, even in the Empire people poured out libations, burned offerings and sometimes even sacrificed animals, though that was rare in cities, outside of big festival things. Still, something else about what he had said bothered her.
"You make it sound like Crone Winter is active in the world, taking things herself. I had thought her a great spirit," Ling Qi said with a frown.
"Because she is," Ilsur's voice grew lower. "I have seen her vessel twice, once amongst the clouds at my fathers second wedding, and once in the harshest winter of my youth, when the tribe lost many children to the cold. It is a horrible thing, and I hope I do not see it again."
Ling Qi felt disquiet at Ilsur's words. The fear in them was real, yet could they be true? Having been in that shrine to the moon and the night, she was certain that the aspects were great spirits. What then had Ilsur seen? Something like Xin perhaps? An avatar of a greater spirit?
"I am sorry to bring up such distressing memories," Ling Qi acknowledged quietly. She supposed even barbarians weren't happy to lose their children. So Ling Qi elected to change the subject. "Do your people actually interact with the White Sky, or is it just a matter of these marriages?"
"We have joined their alliance. We are 'wanderers' as they put it," Ilsur said simply. "It is not so different, our yearly route is more defined, and we winter now at a Gord, and our warriors defend them from demons and hunt beasts that they cannot. It is strange, but not unlike defending a very large camp."
"And there are no problems with that?" Ling Qi asked dubiously, giving up so much autonomy had to bring trouble, both for the tribe and the men doing it.
"There is strife, and we leave interacting with the settled folk to the women while the men hunt and slay, it makes less trouble for everyone. It is not as if our women are not warriors as well. It is foolish to leave any person defenseless," Ilsur said, his voice dropping low at the end.
Ling Qi didn't reply at first, watching as the painted sky overhead began to darken, the hallway they were in was still beautiful, it's paneled and painted walls showing a landscape painted in the colors of twilight. "What is it they are trying to protect their men from? I haven't been able to get a straight answer."
"There are bodiless demons that may take a man's mind in the south," Ilsur said quietly. "They seem rare, but I gather this was not always so. Their possession makes even weak beasts into terrors. They may make men do terrible things in the dark of winter, even to their own kin. And it is said that the Crone does not take sacrifice idly, but to fuel her war with the malice that lies between the stars which births the demons."
"You mean of the stars, I presume," Ling Qi said.
"I do not. The stars are fickle and may be cruel or kind as they wish. It is the darkness between from which malice comes. I do not know if men who make violence are more easily possessed, though," Ilsur dismissed. "Regardless, it is said that when the tribes fought a great war against these demons and cast them out, the menfolk warriors of the new tribes betrayed the alliance, seeking to break the althing and make themselves kings. It is said this was the demons whispers, but-" Ilsur trailed off, offering a shrug.
Ling Qi understood his meaning. That didn't sound like something that would need a demons whispers to happen. Then again, even if her hunch was right… it didn't actually change the rational much.
"Let me ask you this, lowlander," Ilsur said, interrupting their thoughts. "Why go through this effort?"
"I simply think it would be better for less people to lose their lives," Ling Qi said quietly. The cieling overhead glittered with starlight, casting them both in shadow. At the end of the hall, she could feel the presence of Jaromila, and something greater, a nexus of cold that felt like a gnarled forest snowed under.
Ilsur let out a bark of laughter. "Hah, simple, but honest. I do not dislike that answer."
"If I may ask, how did your people meet each other? How did you meet your wife?" Ling Qi asked.
"They met us," Ilsur said simply. "Always we have had tales of the lands of Always Winter, but we thought them spirits not men."
"And that is why you shot me when I saved you, yes?" Jaromila said as they approached. She stood beside a thick door carved from beams of dark wood, it's surface covered in frost.
"I had already fallen, my legs broken, my wings lamed, if I was to die, I would prefer to be eaten by a beast, or slain in battle than lulled to final sleep by a hungry ice wraith," Ilsur said dryly.
Jaromila clicked her tongue and shook her head. "You are such a strange man Ilsur, though that too is charming."
"There is your answer, lowlander. She sought us out, and happened to take a liking to this fool," Ilsur said with a snort. "May your meeting go well."
Ling Qi lowered her head, murmuring a farewell as he turned on his heel, marching away from them. She glanced then to jaromila, who was watching him go with a bemused look.
The foreign woman smiled at her. "He is an odd man, far different than any man of the Alaniar. I am perhaps weak to exotic things."
"Is that really the only reason?" Ling Qi acted cautiously, not just speaking of Ilsur.
Jaromila hummed to herself. "No, but it will have to do for now. The Voice awaits."
Ling Qi nodded, and Jaromila turned away laying her hand on the rime crusted door. Silently it swung open. The room inside was pitch black, much like the shrine had been. The only light came from the faint glint of light from her own hair, reflecting endlessly off the icy formations hanging from the ceiling.
Stepping inside, she found herself treading on an uneven tangle of thick roots, and realized swiftly that the columns arrayed along the length of the room seemed to be living trees. Their canopies brushed up against the ceiling, leafless and stark, rustling with unseen movement. Peering closely at the bark, Ling Qi blinked in surprise as she realized that what seemed like tree bark seemed to actually be dark ore, patterned and textured like bark. It had even fooled her qi sense for a moment.
She followed Jaromila, picking over the tangle of roots burrowing into the iron floor. A dusting of snow fell on their heads, falling from the mist shrouded ceiling overhead. When the door swung shut silently behind them, she didn't look back or flinch. They were within the aura she had sensed outside the hall now, but still, Ling Qi did not see this Voice.
There were more trees lining the walls, sprouting leaves of copper and brass. At the end of the room was the largest tree, a thick trunk with bark of silver, whose roots spread across the shallow steps of the dais it grew upon. There was a powerful qi in the metallic wood, and Ling Qi considered that it was a sort of throne or portal, through which this Voice would manifest or step.
"Voice of the Far Foothills, I bring our guest before you," Jaromila said politely, lowering her head and curtseying.
Ling Qi brought her hands together and bowed. "Emissary Ling Qi offers her greetings to the honored Voice."
She expected someone to step out, or a disembodied voice. She did not expect the whole tree to groan and shift, metal bark writhing to life. It twisted and changed until something shaped vaguely like a woman stood before them. She was tall, taller than even Cai Shenhua had been, at more than three meters in height, her wiry bone white hair nearly brushed the misty ceiling, hanging down well past her shoulders and kept tame by a circlet of black iron and pale green wood, curled around one another. The woman's face was deeply lined and looked more like tree bark than skin. Her eyes were deeply sunken knotholes, gleaming with pale blue light within.
The woman wore a dress of fused vines and withered plant life, creating an unsettling rustling as her chest rose and fell. Her hands, curled at her sides, had too long fingers like skeletal branches, each tipped by long iron talons. The roots which grew all along the dais vanished beneath the leafy hem of her dress.
"You are welcomed," the old woman's voice was slow and very deliberate, and Ling Qi felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise under the woman's scrutiny.
Despite everything she was quite sure that this was a human woman. What's more if Ling Qi's senses were to be believed, she was in the fifth realm.
"I've told you there's not nearly as much difference as you think once you grow a little," Sixiang grumbled quietly.
"Emissary Lingchee is the representative of the unknown bloodline I have spoken of," Jaromila said. Ling Qi followed her lead in keeping her eyes down. "While I would not insult you by bringing matters temporal before your eyes O voice. She has an unusual tale of her godmother which I felt required your interpretation."
Ling Qi stilled as she felt the full weight of the woman's gaze fall upon her. "Yes, she claims life from ice. I would like to see this child through human eyes."
Ling Qi swallowed nervously, and gave Hanyi who had thus far been silent a nudge. She could only hope that this went well.
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